Settler attacks on Palestinians soar, challenging Israeli coalition
On a rock-strewn slope, on land his family long has cultivated, Jibrin Abu Aram pushes a boulder to clear a path for the tractor plowing the chestnut brown earth.
The Palestinian farmer says he had feared coming to the field after having been attacked there recently by a group of Jewish settlers throwing stones.
“They told me to leave, to go to Jordan or Saudi Arabia, but I said, ‘I’m from here,’” says Mr. Abu Aram, who lives in the nearby village of Qawawis.
It was not the first time, he says, that he’s been attacked by settlers, and mounting tensions have him so distressed that he says he barely sleeps at night. So this time he asked pro-Palestinian Israeli activists for protection.
A pair stands close by, keeping watch, a video camera at the ready.
Over the last two years, violence
